I recently moved to Seattle and certain roads require snow chains during the winter. Has anyone used snow chains before? I have been reading various forums and have seen a variety of answers. I have heard these may work from SCC (Super Z6): http://www.scc-chain.com/Traction Pages/Trac_SZ6.html Obviously, moving from Georgia I just bought new Summer tires before the move, so I would rather not spend the money on a new set of winter tires.
Just about every time they require chains for the mountain passes AWD cars are exempt. That being said I went skiing a few times with summer tires on my WRX when I first moved here (for the same reason as you)... and while it worked fine so long as you were on the gas, braking was scary! Most people in the Subaru community will just tell you to get winter tires or all-seasons, but I certainly understand not wanting that financial hit. If you end up getting chains, I would get chains for all 4 tires because of the AWD and take them off as soon as they are not needed for conditions. Les Schwab has a deal where if you buy chains from them and don't use them during winter you can return them for store credit in the spring (you can get some all-seasons when it is time for new tires). They have some low-profile 'sport' cable chains that should do the trick. Do you plan on doing a lot of skiing or a lot of trips to eastern Washington? If not, you probably could get by without chains as it rarely snows in Seattle proper and when it does everything comes to a grinding halt just like it did in ATL.
I'd opt for a winter beater like a Volvo 240 to 740 wagon before I'd drive a vette in winter conditions.